LOS ANGELES — Our four-part series of October 2017 PPM ratings overviews leads off with a thorough look at public news/talk outlets.

This analysis is comprised of PPM-market public news/talk facilities that rank in the top 20 (6+) for the October 2017 sweep, which covered September 14 – October 11.

This is not an overview of all public outlets in PPM-markets, but rather a focus on those that are primarily news/talk.

Given that programming on public stations is generally multi-faceted, some listed on our “public news/talk” panel might be incorporating music blocks (jazz, classical, folk, bluegrass, etc.); however, noncommercial public stations that are exclusively or principallymusic-reliant are purposefully excluded from this list.

One more noteworthy disclaimer: Nielsen Audio only releases audience estimates for facilities that subscribe to its services. For that reason, ratings stats in this exclusive analysis are limited to stations that pay Nielsen Audio for its data.